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Japan officials had complained that Perth's McDiarmid Park was not worthy of full Test status so, by the same token, their team was at least a match for the venue. As it happened, most of the 10,278 spectators who packed into St Johnstone's tidy football ground on Saturday evening had nothing but praise for the setting; few, however, left with anything good to say about Scotland's opponents. Frankly, Japan were a disgrace to international rugby.
What little praise Japan deserve is limited to a first-quarter effort in which they held Scotland to a narrow advantage, but from the moment Hugo Southwell opened up Scotland's lead with his 20th-minute try they were folding faster than an origami expert...In fairness, Japan were critically undermined by the absence of many of their better players, a consequence of their preference to remain at home to play for their club sides in the Top League competition. On the technicality that players are employees of the industrial companies that are the bedrock of rugby in Japan, rather than members of independent clubs, the International Rugby Board cannot insist on their being released, but they can certainly consider whether Japan's games should be accorded full Test status when they field such hopelessly under-strength sides as this.
The irony of the exercise was that Japan's current tour was designed, in part, as a flag-waving exercise in support of the country's bid to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup, but the flag looked distinctly tattered by the finish.
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